Employees at Lexington Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation are ready to strike starting June 30.

It has been 50 days since workers at Lexington Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation were notified their wages would be cut by 40 percent and their benefit package completely changed by their new employers.

Zenith Care Health Group cut workers' pay when it took ownership of the Emerson Garden Road facility, formerly a Golden LivingCenter, on May 1. At the time, workers, union representatives and state legislators all spoke against the wage cut. Workers voted to strike then, but had to wait a mandatory 40 days to take action. On Monday — 46 days after the first vote — a group picketed the nursing home and voted again to strike, setting a date of June 30 and giving management another 15 days to restore the cuts.

If the conflict does come to a strike, we'll be watching the state licensing authority, the Department of Health and Human Services, which will be obliged to monitor the care and upkeep of facility residents.

This is not an airline or mass transit system able to simply shut down and wait out a strike. It is home to 152 elderly people, totally dependent on staff for their daily meals, basic hygiene, medical treatments and social interactions.

If the staff and the management of the Lexington Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation fail to resolve their battle over wages and benefits by June 30, those 152 residents will continue to need around-the-clock care.

Someone — union worker or strikebreaker — is going to have to care for these people.

We are obviously not at the bargaining table, but over the last 46 days have seen no evidence that Zenith Care is taking reasonable steps towards bringing this issue to a close.

We fear this situation is going to get messier before it gets cleaned up, and as it does the care of residents will be put to the test.

As with most union-management debates, when push comes to shove someone will have to compromise first. Regardless of how much support the union members receive from politicians and locals, they still have bills that need to be paid (those which workers can still afford to pay, that is). And management still needs to staff the facility. It is unclear if they will find licensed caregivers willing to work while union members strike outside.

But from our perspective, the only side in this fight to firmly take is that of the facility residents.

We hope that we will never have to ask, “Was that death preventable? Was the care up to required standard?”